The GJEPC has said that Directorate General of Foreign Trade DGFT under the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India has issued a notice to all exporters and other official agencies involved with existing free or preferential trading agreements FTAs PTAs informing them that the existing official Online Platform for Preferential Certificate of Origin is being further expanded to all include other FTAs PTAs.

The platform has been designed as a single-point access under the listed FTAs PTAs for all designated Certificate of Origin CoO issuing agencies and for all export products, DGFT explained, stating that till now the platform was being used for exports from India to Chile, Nepal and Republic of Korea under the respective agreements. The following FTAs PTAs and the countries covered under them are also now included: AIFTA, IJCEPA, SAPTA, SAFTA, APTA and ISLFTA.

With the aim of furthering this initiative and in the light of the current crisis, the Preferential Certificate of Origin for exports to various other countries under the FTAs PTAs listed in the Notice shall also be applied for and issued only from this online platform with effect from 07th April 2020, DGFT said. 

The notice emphasised further, that in view of the movement restrictions in place due to COVID-19 pandemic in India, the designated agencies will issue digitally signed electronic certificates of origin only and no hard copy of the same will be provided. It will only be in electronic format at this point.

All other requirements such as traceability and verification functionality, digital signature and other safety features are built into the portal.

The notice clarified that as and when the functioning of the issuing agency offices resumes, the Certificate of Origin, so issued on the electronic platform, will also be made available in hard copy with ink-signature of the issuing officer to the applicant exporter besides the e-certificate. The certificate issuance process will continue to remain online